WINGS NOTEBOOK: Filppula struggling on offense

DETROIT – Where oh where is Valtteri Filppula and his offensive numbers.

After having a career-high 23 goals and 43 assists during the regular season, Filppula has just one assist through four games of the playoffs.

“I haven’t really gotten frustrated,” Filppula said after practice Thursday at Joe Louis Arena. “That’s only going to slow you down. You just have to think positively. We hopefully still have a few more games to play. I just have to play through it and hopefully the puck starts going in.”

Filppula has just nine shots over those four games, while averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time a night.

Wings coach Mike Babcock feels Filppula played his best game of the series in Game 4.

“You know (Henrik) Zetterberg’s line actually is in a lot of the offense and I think they’ve done a good job,” Babcock said. “We wouldn’t be talking about any of this stuff, but that’s how playoff hockey is. (Jiri) Hudler hits the post and they come down and score instead of 2-1 for us, it’s 2-1 for them, that’s the difference in the game.”

His linemates have combined for three goals and one assist.

“I think Fil is doing a good job, he’s just got to trust his shot and shoot the puck a little bit more, but I think everyone’s like that,” Babcock said.

Lidstrom coming back or retiring?

If the Wings lose in Game 5, Babcock still believes this isn’t the last you will have seen of Nicklas Lidstrom. But he’s been known to be wrong before.

“I’ve been hearing that same story for like five years now,” Babcock said. “The way I look at it is we have to win a game, so that’s our approach. I haven’t thought much about Nick. When Nick decides to retire I’m sure it will be his wife and then his kids, then I think the community, I don’t know, then after that I’ll hear it on the news somewhere. Who knows. I’d be shock if he retires, but I’ve been shocked before.”

Lidstrom would not shed anymore light on it Thursday.

“I think I’ve learned from other years, I try to push that aside and just go out and try to play a real solid game and come out with a win,” Lidstrom said. “I’ll look at that once the season is over, once your summer comes around and you start thinking about your future. It comes into your thought process then. The last couple of years it’s been like that, where I want to wait it out and make a decision afterward.”

Still believeThe Wings are still clinging to last year’s postseason memories when they fell behind 3-0 in the Western Conference semifinals to San Jose before winning the next three to force a Game 7, which they eventually lost.

“We rally around that a little bit,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “We did it recently. We know we can do it. We know we’ve been playing well. We were bad one game and that game we won, that was Game 2. We’ve got a lot of believe in here. We’re a good team. We just have to keep playing like we did last game and eventually we’re going to score.”

“I think the biggest thing is to keep believing in ourselves, sticking with the program and believe in what we do,” Niklas Kronwall said. “I think that’s what we did really well last year, we stuck with it and kept throwing pucks at the net and we almost got away with it.”

Nashville coach Barry Trotz doesn’t have to be reminded of what the Wings did in last year’s series with the Sharks.

“We know tomorrow is the biggest game of the year,” Trotz said. “Whatever is thrown at us will be the biggest game of the year. Hopefully we will be ready. We have to manage the puck a little bit better. We have to capitalize on our chances and we have been good at that.”

Despite how bad the Wings have been on the road during the regular season, they did have a stretch of winning four in a row away from Joe Louis Arena – Nov. 19 to Nov. 25.

“You can’t let it get to you,” Zetterberg said. “We’re going to go in and just play a good game tomorrow and go out there and (force a Game 6).”

“It’s one period at a time, it’s the standard,” Cory Emmerton said. “You’re not trying to win three games at once. It sounds like everyone would say that but it’s true. You have to win one. That’s all you can say about it. Go in there to Nashville for one game.”

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